It's been a while since I've done any blog writing. This whole thing started when I was both coaching debate and working my day job, and then I retired first the former and a bit later the latter, and the narrative thread pretty much disappeared. I was busy with this, that, and the other, tabbing a lot of tournaments, creating comix (e.g., ConstiToonies), keeping quite busy, thank you very much, but I did miss just good old-fashioned writing. So here we are again.
LISTENING: I listen to rock/pop/contemporary albums in the morning. Half an hour to an hour, maybe. I create playlists called Audit, followed by a number. Whenever I see an artist or group unknown to me mentioned favorably, I'll go to Spotify and add them to the latest audit list. (I keep the number of tracks of each of these lists roughly at 300, for manageability's sake.) I'll also occasionally throw in an artist or group that I think I know inside and out, because otherwise in the streaming world you end up never listening to your old favorites. And when an artist I've never or only vaguely heard of dies, they too get tossed onto the pile. As I listen to these audit playlists, occasionally a track will strike me as worth saving, and I'l add it to one of my main playlists. (More about them another time.) And if the performer strikes my fancy, I'll add more of them to future audits.
I mention this because this morning I was treated to a compilation of Fats Waller music. As a piano player myself there are certain performers who have a special appeal to me, and Waller is one of them. Obviously his left hand is a machine, but his right hand also intrigues me. There's all these interstitial diddly diddly diddly riffs that he just throws off because he can that make his music light and sweet while keeping it swinging at the same time. And he has that fun entertainer's singing voice that takes over after what is usually a long piano opening to a number. Plus he wrote a hell of a lot of songs, many of them now standards. (Come to think of it, I've seen "Ain't Misbehavin'" a number of times, both on broadway and on tour and I think even on television.) How did he make his way onto one of the audit lists, which are mostly rock? Well, I hadn't listened to him in a while and his name just popped into my head and then I popped him into an audit. No better reason needed.
By the way, if you want to follow up on this, head over to YouTube to watch him perform. There's a decent amount of material, including his Soundies and his performing in "Stormy Weather."
I just love his work.
(So, apparently, does Maria Muldaur: https://youtu.be/O7RUhBdakx4?si=L1rYpSanwqQqCdbk)
